Comics have come a long way since the days of four colors, cardboard characters, and plots thinner than the cheap paper they were printed on. Just one look at The Dark Knight reveals how the entire genre has expanded into a multi-dimensional, multi-million-dollar milieu for deep creative expression.

But some things haven't changed. Diversity, for example. Seems like part of the prerequisites for gaining powers — beyond radioactive spiders, super soldier serums and chemically-infused lightning bolts — is the kind of skin color that only a Klansman could love.

To the credit of the comics companies, they have been trying to change that. DC, for example, took a bunch of their B-list characters and rebooted them as a racial rainbow: Black Firestorm! Asian Atom! Latino Blue Beetle! And, our personal favorite for obvious reasons, Jewish, lesbian Batwoman! Oy gevalt.

What do all these characters have in common? Besides pandering to the lowest common denominator, they're all currently without their own books. Canceled: the cruelest curse in comics.

Will they come back? Will they be reverted to their Caucasian counterparts? At this point it's tough to say and even tougher to care.

Seriously, if the best we can do is this kind of paint-by-numbers tokenism, it may be time to fold up our mylar bags and find a more respectable hobby.